Tag Archives: Windsong

While attending a special meeting of the Wildomar City Council, one of two citizens present, I had the opportunity to ask our Mayor what happened to the basketball nets that were order at the last regular City Council meeting held on February 11, 2015.
The answer was they are at home, there hasn’t been time to install them as it is a most difficult task, they do not just hook on.
The question that begs to be answered is
1. Why is it necessary for the Mayor to purchase new basketball nets.
2. Why is it necessary for the Mayor to install the new basketball nets.
3. Why is it necessary to have to attach a u-tube video explaining how to change out a net in this technically savvy age.

Many different free videos are available along with step instructions at E-how.com and other such sites.

With the city employing what has been referred to as a part time parks employee one has to wonder how it is with so little work to performed,
as the job does not appear to require a full time employee,
no time can be found to purchase an additional 4 basketball nets, as only 4 fancy ones were ordered, and install them in the 3 parks. Hopefully the city employee has acquired a step ladder since opening day 314 days ago.

At the most recent city council meeting for the city of Wildomar after being confronted about council members lack of really caring about the parks and the 305 days (the far too late) since the re-opening of the 3 city parks during which not a single tattered basketball net was replaced an extreme display of arrogance took place.
Rather than the council direct the City Manager to have the City Parks Employee (paid for with Measure Z Funds) use his part-time hours to visit the near by Walmart and using petty cash from the Measure Z Parks fund purchase 8 new nets at a cost of less than $40.00 and install them before the weekend, two days from that point in time.A purchase order/voucher or maybe even the city credit card could have been used as well to be paid for at a later date using Measure Z funds.

A council person, during the meeting from the dais, ordered 4 fancy red-white and blue nets (the way too little), half of what was needed.

I (and at least one other person) will be watching to see if these nets are installed at the only park that seems to count in this city. The other 2 parks will have to wait for another embarrassing moment.

This display goes hand in hand with the lack of notice given area residents before the fence was removed from one of the parks. A most telling lack of respect for citizens directly affected by actions of the city. This removal occurred prior to any of the security measures being installed for which this city has paid up front a large sum of money with a date uncertain, two dates have been given January 26th and February 11th, so far

While making my weekly visit to the 3 parks of Wildomar one can see some progress being made. The part-time parks employee has been more visible this week walking the parks removing trash strewn about and picking up after the scofflaws that continue to allow their animals to deposit waste along the way. That and the Swisher Sweet containers scattered about.

Madness for sure.

With the help of an industrious volunteer the city employee has resuscitated 8 of the 9 field drains by performing a atherectomy and removing essentially 100% occlusion before the rainy season.

Before Cleaning

After removing 10 pounds of dirt and trash.

One field drain still needs to be opened, but the city employee needs to borrow tools from the cemetery district to perform this task. The part-time worker has been observed hosing off gazebos and picnic tables without the benefit of a automatic shut off nozzle, he doesn’t even have one of those. Hopefully before the rainy season starts the city will pop for the necessary fossil filters that should have been replace long ago and the parking lot drains along with the “bioswale” drains can be looked after as specified by the BMP in the WQMP.
Speaking of bioswales.

What a bioswale should look like

Wildomar’s idea of a bioswale

Parking lot drain in serious need of attention. May take heavy equipment to straighten out top so filter can be removed

An item specified in the WQMP for Marna O’Brien Park and touted all over Riverside County but rarely implemented.

This one is located in an HOA where a former Planning Director is on the Board.

Typical Wildomar Drain, no markings whatsoever

Another item specified in the WQMP is the posting of Santa Margarita and Santa Ana Watershed Information on a bulletin board.

Not much information here

BMP in WQMP
(That translates into Best Management Practice in Water Quality Management Plan for which the County of Riverside escaped thousand of dollars in fines from the Regional Water Board by implementing, almost a year after completing the park. This document was supposed to be completed before construction even got started.)

The city employee has also been attempting to maintain the previously ignored Tot-Lots for which the citizens still await a Certified Playground Safety Inspection which has not been done to my knowledge. Despite the lack of inspection there is progress being made in this area. One can’t help notice the newly added surfacing material that has made the Tot-Lots look complete rather than a giant void as before.

Seriously lacking surfacing material to cushion a fall. Also uneven.

This lack of material led to numerous exposed hazards.

Today it is much better with an even surface and hazards properly covered

Numerous other hazards were taken care of when additional surfacing material (Engineered Wood Fiber) was added

Two week ago at the beginning of August. 113 days after the parks opened to the public

What it looks today after bitching to the city council

The beginning of August. Just waiting to remove a toe

What it looks like today.

Some hardware has been replaced where previously missing, thanks to a generous donation from Coast Recreation in Costa Mesa when their representative happened to be in the area and stopped by.

What it looked like the beginning of August. Missing several pieces of hardware

Two weeks later with hardware replaced.

City employee is waiting on a gel material to see if these windows to the world can be cleaned up, if not lets hope the city will replace them.

Much still needs to be done in the way of a written maintenance schedule for which the city will more than likely have to pay for a replacement, seems Riverside County EDA claims to have turn over these schedules along with post construction drawings of the parks to the City of Wildomar when the city took the parks from the county in July of 2009 , the city claims not to have these schedule and drawings.
It is most important from a risk management point of view that a written check sheet be used to document the maintenance ensuring that no step is left out and the process is done on a regular basis and documented. This type of check-off sheet/log has not been observed when the maintenance process is being performed.

We should a similar type form, checked off, signed an kept in a book for each park in the maintenance room.

The city also needs to pony up the money to replace certain elements of the Tot-Lots, like the viewing windows and bubble that are so worn one thinks there vision is going south, or the one that’s been broken for eons. The talking tube at Regency Heritage that is missing along with fixing the periscope and mirrors and chimes at Windsong.

Numerous complaints have been heard and observed by myself. One would never know if a complaint has been filed with the city.
ANTS are a major problem in at least two of the cities parks, Marna O’Brien and Windsong Park. The ant hills in Marna O’Brien are clearly visible throughout the park.

These hills a located all over the park. I counted at least 20 in a short period of time

What flavor of ants do we have is best left to the experts, but these do have a hell of a sting.

List of stinging ants in the U.S.

The ants that normally populate this area of the Southern United States are the native Southern Fire Ant.

This is the usual suspect.

But in recent years a new more irritating species has arrived the Imported Red Fire Ant.

This is a nasty one.

Maybe one of the future “Movies in the Park” can be “The Ant Bully”.
For those camping in the park this evening lets hope you avoid the ant hills.

I was going to do a write on the materials used in the Tot-Lots. But I have decided to use only pictures of some of the hazards that lurk in your parks 72 hours after the City Council of Wildomar was notified about the dangers in the Tot-Lots.

A shot to identify the park in question. It’s Windsong.

This is pile of larger than 2 inch sticks that could impale a child should they trip and fall. Yes that is dog shit to the right. Also an 8 inch hard plastic rod.

Wonder how your child could trip and fall. Maybe coming down this ramp with the 3 inch lip at the end of it.

Some additional dangers that have been present since the City Council was asked to shut them down and fix the problems.

A recent survey of Wildomar’s parks, Thursday July 17,2014 shows that all but one of the “Doggie Walk Bag” dispensers being empty and they have been for a couple of weeks. The one that has bags is improperly loaded making it next to impossible to remove a bag without destroying it. This does not include the fact that there are no dispensers located at Windsong Park, which is heavily used because it is currently a fenced in area, despite the holes in the back fence.

These are located 2 each at Regency Heritage, 2 each at Marna O’Brien and Zero at Windsong Park.

These bags are necessary because all of Wildomar’s parks drain into Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer Systems (MS4) which then drain into protected waters. Marna O’Brien drains into Heritage Regency which then drains into Lake Elsinore. Windsong Park drains into the Murrieta Creek by way of a unnamed tributary. These bags also help keep the parks somewhat sanitary for “the children” who like to crawl about.

This is in a grassy area. Some has been run over by the mowers in other grassy areas.

This is in the shrubs

While talking to the part time groundskeeper responsible for these dispensers the bags are on order, which doesn’t solve the immediate problem of an increasing amount of dog excrement in the parks. Is it so difficult to go to the local pet supply house with petty cash and get some. Better yet if they are on order from the regular supplier, bite the bullet, pay for expedited shipping and learn from it.
Just one more problem with having a part-time person overseeing the parks.
Please show up at the oversight meeting that is scheduled for Thursday July 24 at 6:30 PM and request that the city either make the current person a full time parks employee or they hire someone to be full time.

On February 12, 2014 one of the City Council Persons asked why none of the parks were open and how long it would take to at least get the Basketball and Gazebo areas open. This Council Person was assured it would happen within a couple of weeks.

I just went by the Three Parks and Welch Field, couple of weeks after that council meeting. Status: Same as it has been since the GDS. Nowhere close to opening.

Windsong Park, the one official park with access to Reclaimed or Recycled Water, still has an enormous mound of bark in the middle of the future grass area. No Hydroseeding has been done therefore no grass for at least a couple of months.
To be fair the City Manager did say that this park would open when a Security Company had been hired and the current fence removed which could be anytime between now and the new official opening day on April 12th for the City of Wildomar Easter Egg Hunt.

As it looks on February 25th

Another view of 25th

The Pile

The Pile and the Reason it Should not Exist. Where’s the Grass ?

Welch Field, currently leased to the City of Wildomar, for ?
These two ball diamonds which have access to Reclaimed Water are in the process of growing a really nice crop of weeds. There has been some cleanup done as the Measure Z sign is gone and piles of rubbish have been removed.
One would have hoped that the City of Wildomar who plans to spend $10,000 for the cities birthday out of Measure Z funds would have spent a little to plant a proper field. This was originally promised to be done before the three parks were closed for renovation so the citizens would have a place to play.

As it looked 2 months ago

Fields 2 months ago

Nice crop of weeds. Play Ball

Marna O’Brien Park has had the most time and money spent on it, what with the ball fields all groomed and ready to plant, just waiting for rain as it would be irresponsible of the city to use potable (drinking) water for grass in the middle of a drought especially when the farmers in the state are facing mandatory rationing. Its good to see that maybe City Officials get it.
Hopefully they will also get the importance of fixing the drainage system before the Regional Water District San Diego comes down on them like a ton of bricks for there failure to implement the requirements for post construction BMP’s which include stenciling all parking lot drains with “Only Rain in the Storm Drain, installation of a bulletin board containing educational material, maintenance of the filters required, etc. These items were originally the responsibility of the Riverside County EDA but the City of Wildomar claimed they were able to manage the parks on their own, so now its there responsibility.

Regency Heritage Park, this is going to be the most interesting of all the facilities currently operated by the City of Wildomar.
This parks currently receives unfiltered drainage from 3 separate directions, due to the City of Wildomar and Riverside County Flood Control not properly maintaining their respective MS4 (Drainage Sytems). Because of the maintenance failures this park is currently buried in sediment. Some work has been done to remove this material but a whole lot more still needs to be done. The “Dog Park” area is in shambles due to its being located at the outflow end of the park where the flow backs up due to PPP. The water doesn’t flow it trickles out creating a lake at that end of the park.
The future of this park remains in question because now the County of Riverside has plans to build Open Channel A, a drainage system as part of the Lakeland Village Master Drainage Plan which is working its way through the approval process. This 42 foot wide channel will start at the South East end of the park flowing North West thru the entire length of the park and continuing to Corydon.

After attending the last “Wildomar Community Parks Funding Measure Citizen’s Oversight Advisory Committee” which was attended by all of 2 citizens, one being myself, I came away with some questions which I asked to be answered at the end of the meeting, as the usual format for the City of Wildomar was in place, a three minute diatribe before an item is discussed.

During the meeting it was discussed that a porta-potty would be placed at Windsong Park. It would be a newer type of restroom facility, in place of the single unit that was used in the past. Like the one that was apparently tipped over a number of times and eventually set on fire costing the city $775.00 to replace. This newer type unit would be placed on a slab and possibly contain facilities for both sexes along with a place to wash up afterwards.

The question I asked was “ Is there a stub-out for a sewer connection located at Windsong Park and if so where is it?”. It occurred to me that before a slab is placed it should be somewhere close to this possible future sewer connection so that money is not wasted when the park is eventually connected to the existing sewer system, which should be less costly than the monthly fee ($140 per month)to empty the single portable units.

Some may ask why I would ask this question, the answer is HISTORY: Having moved to this valley before the “Windsong Tract” was built, I remember the controversy surrounding the requirement that parkland be dedicated, with the developer balking because we had no park district to accept and maintain it. The land was eventually dedicated in March of 1989 with this statement on Tract map 23196 “We hereby dedicate to public use for Park purposes, Lot 58. With that dedication the developer was required to provide all utilities to the site per the Quimby Act, along with the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District requirement that when a sewer line is placed a stub-out or future connection be place to every parcel along its route.

I was assured that this would be looked into and an answer forthcoming. I also followed up with the Chairman of the Oversight Committee via e-mail a couple of days later. Its now 2 weeks later with no answer. So much for asking city officials.

The City of Wildomar is currently “rehabilitating” the 3 parks in town.

During this process they are contemplating planting grass. The grass called for in the “Parks Planting Plans” Festuca Elatior (Marathon 1 Turf). The total square footage called for in each park are, Marna O’Brien Park 192,867 sq. ft., Regency-Heritage Park 18,944 sq. ft. and Windsong Park 34,341 sq. ft. which comes to grand total of 246,152 square feet or 5.65 acres of grass that will require water. 70% of the water for two of the parks will be imported water, Windsong Park currently has access to recycled water. This type of grass calls for approximately 1 inch of water per week to maintain a healthy lawn, this area generally receives 12 inches of rainfall annually which means a balance of 40 inches of water per year is normally needed. Unfortunately with less than 1 inch of rainfall so far this year that number will increase to 51 inches.

With California currently in the third year of a drought and with the Governor asking for a 20% reduction in usage and the State Water Project cutting of all deliveries for the foreseeable future.

Now is not the time to plant grass, except where reclaimed or recycled water is available which limits this to Windsong Park, and possibly Welch Field if they have access to recycled water.